Q. A friend of mine is addicted to these cookies sold on my college campus called Peanut Butter Bombs, made by Isabella's Cookie Co. in Southern California. I would really like to surprise him with a healthy version for his birthday. Can you help?

A. Well, I can't officially pass these lighter cookies off as "healthy" but they are definitely "healthier" than the bakery version. I looked up these amazing cookies on www.isabellascookies.com and they are described as "soft peanut butter cookies crammed with peanut butter chips and peanut butter candies."

So I started with "the world's best peanut butter cookies" recipe from cooks.com and made a few substitutions/changes:

•  Less-fat margarine or whipped butter used instead of stick butter

• Granulated sugar was cut in half

• Whole-wheat flour substituted for half of the white flour

• Higher omega-3 egg used instead of regular

• Added peanut butter candies or M&Ms and left out the peanut butter chips

Isabella's cookies are, in a word, huge, so I used a rounded cookie scoop (about 1/4 cup of dough) instead of a level cookie scoop. Compared to traditional peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips, these changes described above doubled the fiber, cut the saturated fat and cholesterol in half, and reduced the calories, carbs and total fat by around 25 percent. This is now my new favorite cookie! I can't wait to makeover another one of Isabella's unique cookie flavors.

A traditional peanut butter cookie made with chocolate chips contains around 320 calories, 18 grams fat, 8.5 grams saturated fat, 33 mg cholesterol and only 1.5 grams fiber per cookie.

BETTER PEANUT BUTTER BOMBS

• 1/4 cup less fat margarine or whipped butter, at room temperature

• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 large egg, higher omega-3 if available

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unbleached white flour

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (semi-sweet or M&Ms or peanut butter pieces can be substituted)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In mixing bowl, combine margarine or whipped butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla beating on medium speed and scraping sides of bowl with spatula.

Add egg and peanut butter to sugar mixture in bowl and beat until blended. In medium bowl, combine flours and baking soda with whisk and then pour into mixing bowl, beating on low speed just until blended. Add chocolate chips or M&Ms by hand or by beating on low speed.

Scoop out dough using a rounded cookie scoop (about 1/4 cup of dough for each cookie) and place on nonstick baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake 12 minutes or until cookies are light brown.

Makes 14 large cookies.

• Per cookie: 250 calories, 6 g protein, 28 g carbohydrate, 13 g fat, 3.7 g saturated fat, 5 g monounsaturated fat, 4 g polyunsaturated fat, 16 mg cholesterol, 3 g fiber, 150 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 46 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids = .2 gram, Omega-6 fatty acids = 3.5 gram. Weight Watchers POINTS = 5